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  •   over 7 years ago

context

Sorry, I maybe missing some context to this hackathon but I'm reading that you can submit *ANY* java/android application that so happens to be been tracked in VSTS? So it could be a hello world web-app (unlikely to win i would expect)?

In terms of visual studio 'extensions' for the java platform section, is there any suggestions/examples about the type that could be implemented to help get better understanding of the challenge?

I'm coming at this as a Java stack developer (intellij) & not a VS/VSTS user.

Thanks,

Ian.

  • 2 comments

  • Manager   •   over 7 years ago

    Hi Ian, thanks for your interest in the Java Tools Challenge and your questions.

    Visual Studio Team Services (Team Services for short) is a complete and integrated suite of software development tools for any developer, any language, any platform. Not only does it provide a Git repository for storing, branching, merging and versioning your code for the hack-a-thon, but it also provides the ability to track your backlog and stories while developing for agile (scrum and kanban) planning, sprints and retrospectives; to build (with support for Ant, Maven and Gradle), test and deploy your solution to an environment of your choosing (including Azure solutions). So, we provided categories for building Java web or mobile apps, using the features offered by Team Services (just storing your code in our Git repos may not lead to a winning entry; however, there is no requirement that you use all features). For the Team Services plug-in categories, we are looking for innovative extensions of the services provided that will better support other Java developers building apps and plugins themselves. The judges are looking for innovation, unique and novel ideas or approaches, or simply value added for Java developers in terms of time saved, higher quality, or other dimensions of Java software development. Integrations with other Java solutions and systems in a meaningful and useful way are also welcomed purposes of Team Services plugins. Thanks and good luck with your entries!

  •   •   over 7 years ago

    Hi Paul; Firstly I appreciate your speedy response and what you say makes sense; thanks.

    I get the feeling that i'm not the target participant that you are looking for, and are looking people who already use Java along with the VSTS services which, from my limited research would be mainly SMEs with multiple developers using the storyboards/VCS/CI servers etc. I know solo devs could also use these services but from a true pragmatic sense, i expect this to be unlikely as would be somewhat overkill.

    Reason i fell onto this hackathlon page is that i'm researching the viability of using Azure (VM & Webapps) for Java webapps and actually been developing internally a gradle plugin to help simplify deployment to azure which i would hope to open source at some stage.

    That said, the VSTS CI platform does look interesting & If i get time I may have a quick play with it but I'm currently using teamcity and also the load testing tool could be worth a closer look (currently use load.io). I would also give the intellij plugin a go but can't see any rational as get native support for git/github/bitbucket so don't see any need. With those aside, I am still struggling to see what i could develop that would benefit the VSTS platform that could help java developers like me long term or indeed why i would use the VSTS with Java project over the tools that we currently have in the java ecosystem (well,unless corporate pressure dictated that we must).

    So, in short i don't want to start working on something simply for the fact that i could win a financial reward as where would the fun of that be :-)

    Well, That's only my 2 pence & do respect the drive from MS on evolving their Java offerings (hence, why i'm currently looking at azure as a viable cloud platform solution)

    Ian.

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